14 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 7 
were probably even larger prior to 1737, the year 
of a disastrous smallpox epidemic. Certain areas, 
however, particularly the pastures of the ever- 
green marshes (the lower Lerma, the Zacapu 
district, the Zamora Valley), were mainly Spanish 
in speech. By 1600 the northern boundary of 
Tarascan had moved north into the Bajio of 
Guanajuato, where Spanish wheat farms and 
stock ranches had attracted large numbers of 
native workers from the southern pueblos (Zavala 
and Castello, 1939-46, vol. 5, p.30). In the north- 
western sector a reemergent Mexican (Teco) speech 
had replaced Tarascan (AGN Historia, vol. 73, ff. 
192-210; 212-226), while in the northeast and east 
Mazahua and Matlaltzinca were encroaching 
farther into Tarascan territory. The islands of 
Matlaltzinca east and southwest of Valladolid still 
held, but that of Huetamo had probably disap- 
peared (AGN Historia, vol. 73, f. 139). 
By 1800 (map 9) the percentage of Tarascan- 
speaking folk in the northern area had decreased 
notably, especially along the frontiers. The 
Matlaltzinca-Tarascan area of Charo-Zinapécuaro 
was still largely indigenous, and a zone from Cerro 
el Zirate northward to Lake Cuitzeo contained a 
large proportion of native speech. Fifty years 
later (map 10)** the Tarascan-speaking people 
had been reduced to small isolated islands, partly 
a result of frequent military and political upheay- 
als following the struggle for independence. In 
1940 (map 11), after nearly 100 years of inter- 
mittent political turmoil, Tarascan speech had 
disappeared from the northern grasslands, except 
for a few resistant pueblos on the northern edge 
of the Sierra. After a slow weakening in the 
colonial period, the native language in the North 
gradually collapsed during the last 150 years. 
The western area.—Immediately west of the 
Sierra lies a southward prong of the northern 
plateau landscape, which, like the North, was 
early settled by whites and mulattoes. At the 
beginning of the 17th century the large graben 
valley of Cotija was occupied by cattle estancias, 
and the settlement of Cotija was composed en- 
tirely of Spanish blood. As late as 1800 this 
valley, except its eastern end, was an island of 
‘aniards and some mulattoes and mestizos sur- 
tion statistics were not available to construct an isopleth map 
roximate boundaries of Tarascan speech were compiled from 
-entury reports: ‘‘Noticia general de los terrenos de com- 
9] Estado’’, in Memoria de la Legislatura de Miehoacin 
~ leg. 707, Memorias estadisticas . . . 1841, Listas 
. 1845; Orozco y Berra, 1864, pp. 271-273; 
rounded by Tarascans. A few Spanish ranchers 
and traders settled also in Tingiindin, a large 
Indian village at the western edge of the Sierra; but 
the extreme western Tarascan zone from Maza- 
mitla to Los Reyes did not completely lose its 
native speech until the beginning of the present 
century. 
The tierra caliente and tierra templada.—The 
story of the recession of Tarascan speech in the 
tierra caliente roughly parallels that in the northern 
plateau. In the former area disease probably 
decimated the native population more completely 
than in the north, and its Europeanization was 
consequently more rapid. After the period of 
gold panning in the southern tributaries of the 
Tepalcatepec and Balsas Rivers, the Spaniards 
turned to cattle ranching in the tropical bush 
around Cutzamala, Pungarabato, and Huetamo 
in the Balsas Basin and near Apatzingén and 
Tomatlan in the Tepalcatepec lowland. Although 
the tropical grasses and shrubs were less nourish- 
ing than those in the northern plateau, the tierra 
caliente was favored by abundant springs and 
streams. As in the north, the natives rapidly 
became vaqueros and mixed with the mulattoes and 
Negroes on the ranches. Moreover, during the 
last decades of the 16th century Spaniards began 
to establish sugar plantations and mills in the 
upper limits of the tierra caliente.> The mill 
settlements (trapiches, ingenios), like the cattle 
ranches, were centers of acculturation and misce- 
genation. Large groups of Negro and mulatto 
slaves, male and female, were imported to operate 
the trapiches (according to colonial law, Indians 
were exempt from mill labor), while Tarascan 
forced and free workers planted and harvested 
cane in fields nearby. Race mixing and gradual 
loss of native speech was inevitable. Again, ex- 
ploitation of the copper mines of the trerra caliente 
and the establishment of smelting centers in 
Tzatzio and Santa Clara was another activity 
which helped acculturation and hastened the loss 
of the aboriginal language. In 1750 the limits of 
Tarascan speech still coincided with the 16th 
century pre-Spanish boundaries, but in some 
areas, such as the Tepalcatepec Basin, the per- 
centage of inhabitants speaking Tarascan was 
only 25 percent of the total. In the tierra tem- 
plada sugar-growing districts south of Zit&écuaro, 
in the Peribién Valley, and the upper escarpment 
zone around Ario and Tacdmbaro, the ratio of 
25 In 1540 a sugar mill had been established in Taximaroa, on the plateau 
above Tuxpan (Paso y Troncoso, 1905, vol. 1, p. 253). 
